When Kurt and Anna-Maria Spennesberger heard the news about former pope Benedict XVI’s death, they immediately got into their car and drove 200 kilometres to the former pontiff’s southern German birth town Marktl. They had to be at the small town bordering Austria for a special church service saying farewell to Benedict because “we knew Ratzinger personally,” said Kurt, 71,…
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These images show the dismantling of the monument to the Russian Empress Catherine II and the “founders of the city” on Wednesday night (28 December 2022). The monument featured Russia’s most famous Empress at its centre, alongside her companions José de Ribas, François Sainte de Wollant, Platon Zubov and Grigory Potemkin. It was originally built in 1900, but taken down…
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Shattered display cases and empty shelves highlight the extent of Russian looting at a history museum in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson where Olga Goncharova has worked for four decades. Since Russian forces retreated last month after an eight-month occupation, Goncharova, its acting director, has been trying to account for the damage and theft –- a process she described…
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After dawn in a small eastern Indonesia town, a young man holds an ornate umbrella over non-binary priest Puang Matowa Nani, as they walk barefoot to a nearby pond to perform the annual ritual of Mappalili. The ceremony marks the start of the planting season on the island of Sulawesi, where the androgynous Bissu community to whom they belong once…
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In an annex of Iraq’s national museum, a conservator pores over a 17th-century manuscript, carrying out delicate restoration work as part of efforts to preserve and digitise 47,000 precious texts. “Some manuscripts date back almost 1,000 years,” said Ahmed al-Alyawi, who heads the House of Manuscripts body. “There are writings in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew and Kurdish,” he added, noting…
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Ancient monasteries in deepest provincial Austria do not normally feature on the bucket lists of the TikTok generation. Nor do libraries. But the Admont abbey library in the small Styrian town — which claims to be the largest monastic library in the world — is also the most Instagramable, with Baroque interiors so breathtaking they almost look like they have…
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More than a hundred new designs discovered in and around Peru’s ancient Nazca plain and surrounding areas could bring new information to light about the mysterious pre-Columbian artworks that have intrigued scientists and visitors for decades. Following two years of field surveys with aerial photos and drones, Peruvian and Japanese researches from Yamagata University earlier this month reported the discovery of…
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Endurance was the name of a ship that ran into pack ice on an Antarctic expedition more than 100 years ago. The ship drifted through the Weddell Sea for almost a year before finally breaking up under the ice pressure and sinking in November 1915. The crew of 28 was able to escape in three lifeboats to Elephant Island. From…
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German officials returned 20 of the treasured Benin Bronzes on Tuesday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, a move that has attracted international attention amid a debate about returning art looted in the colonial era. The valuable objects were handed over to Nigeria in a solemn ceremony with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Culture Minister Claudia Roth. “It was wrong…
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German officials returned 20 of the treasured Benin Bronzes on Tuesday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, a move that has attracted international attention amid a debate about returning stolen art. The valuable objects were handed over to Nigeria in a solemn ceremony with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Culture Minister Claudia Roth. “It was wrong to steal these bronzes.…
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